The present invention relates to a device for locking a cover on a container, particularly a wheeled container, and to a container, which has at least one such device and is usable, in particular, for the mechanized collection of waste, particularly household waste.
For containers of this kind, which are designed to remain for a period of varying length on the public roadway both when empty and when full, it is desirable to keep the cover closed and locked onto the barrel to bar the access of unauthorized persons to the interior of the barrel, to prevent material being removed by such people from the barrel out of sense of mischief or a desire to salvage or place waste other than that authorized being placed in the barrels, particularly in a system of waste recycling.
It has already been proposed to equip such containers with a cover locking device, which can be operated with a key, particularly a personalized key.
This solution is not entirely satisfactory because, the person performing the collection must be able to open the cover without having the key that unlocks it.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,584 discloses a device for locking a cover on a container, particularly a wheeled container. This device has a latch, which is mounted so as to pivot between a position, in which it locks the cover closed on the barrel, and an unlocked position, in which it releases the cover. It furthermore has an operating means, which cooperates with said latch to bring the latch into the unlocked position when the container is in a predetermined inclined position.
In this publication, the operating means consists of a movable weight, which rolls along a curved track, and is connected by a linkage to a pivoting latch.